Riot and Frolic

Advent Adventures

Day 13: take the train in to Minneapolis and watch the Holidazzle parade.

Otherwise known as, Holidon't,  Holidisappointment, or, my personal favorite, Holi-diaster.

Here's the problem with the Holidazzle parade: it's a winter parade… IN MINNESOTA.

We have forecasts that are described as "BITTERLY COLD".  "FEELS LIKE -19°".

NINETEEN BELOW ZERO, PEOPLE.  You Californians, just. don't. know.

Parades are generally for the children and in the name of making happy memories, us crazy Minnesotans will drag our wee ones out into the SUB-FREEZING TUNDRA of Minneapolis and stand on a curb for an hour.

But wait, we won't, because 1-3 of our children will need to go to bathroom and THERE ARE NO BATHROOMS.

You think I'm joking, but IT IS A FACT.  There is ONE bathroom open in the evening in downtown Minneapolis and it is so far in the recesses of Macy's that you think you're in an employees only area.  And it is strangely hot in the bathroom and your children have 9 layers of clothing on because you were planning on the Antarctic-like atmosphere outside, not the rainforest you've just encountered inside.  

And you want to get a coffee SO BAD (and put some of that whiskey in it, that you brought in your new birthday flask), but the line at the Caribou Coffee is INTIMIDATINGLY LONG.  So you hunch your shoulders and head back outside without a hot toddy. *sigh*

The two floats you end up seeing are really neat and you're impressed by the parade marchers' enthusiasm, but you have made up your mind that A) the best part was the train ride and B) you're not going again until the girls are 14 years old OR  it's 34° out.

zoo looked like she grew up in NYC

IT'S SANTA! SANTA'S COMING! OH MY GOSH!

the big guy in his sleigh

chillin' on the curb

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

Advent Adventures

Day 10: shopping for sisters.

In theory, the girls really liked this one, but when they opened up the bag, they were awfully disappointed it was "just a card".  [When there's an action to be accomplished that day, it's just written on a notecard.  Not a great motivator for the pre-reading set.]

We haven't actually done the shopping yet since The G and I had a 10 meetings and pick-ups for this other crazy thing we're doing (the soon-to-be Mill City Ballroom), but I'm curious to see what they'll pick out for each other.

Day 11: marshmallows, AKA THE WAY MORE FUN THAN YESTERDAY ONE.

If someone tells you marshmallows are hard to make, they are liars.  I vaguely followed the recipe at Smitten Kitchen for marshmallows and still they turned out great.

Things I did wrong that still produced better-than-store-bought 'mallows:

• don't have a candy thermometer and just eyeball what 240° of boiling sugar water looks like.
• beat the egg whites WITH the vanilla, instead of beating the egg whites AND THEN adding the vanilla.
• use a hand-mixer.  The ye olde Kitchenaid works magic on marshmallow fluff, but mine is in need of a worm gear after mixing too much pizza dough.  That was one very tired, hot, 30 year old Cuisinart when all was said and done.

Mostly the little ladies were overjoyed at making them "princess marshmallows" by each of them adding a few drops of food coloring… and getting to lick the beaters.

not williams-sonoma, but i'm complemented by the reference

Have you ever made marshmallows?  Do you make other candies?  

Anybody?  Anybody?

Every year I feel the same anticipation on this big day…

Advent Adventures

Day 8 : GET A TREE.

We go to this tree farm that isn't really a tree farm, but is adorable (so adorable they don't even have a website) and family-owned and HAS SHEEP.

Zoo and I didn't participate in the actual picking, because someone was sick… in the car… on the way there… so sick that I had to strip most of her clothes off, but even without our extremely particular opinions, the rest of the gang picked out a great tree.  

We have a cast iron tree stand and it's amazing.  We got it for our first Christmas together from my in-laws and every year we stand the tree up and use several expletives about how great it is.

Notice today's activity wasn't "Get and decorate a tree".  We are spreading out the fun.  

What's your stand on trees?  Fake or real?  Store or farm?  What are your favorite decorations?

Two years ago: Decisions, Decisions, in which I try to make a decision.

Advent Adventures

Day 6 : The girls got fancy band-aids in their goodie bag today and it might not seem like a big deal, but ZOMG WHAT IS WITH SMALL CHILDREN AND BAND-AIDS!?!

I loosely tied in the "first aid supplies" with having to pack for a journey because of the census that Caesar demanded and how Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem and let's not really talk about the applicability.  Just nod and smile and slowly walk away.

[Note: Thanks to Babs for the awesome vocab word "interrobang".]

 Two years ago: I Ate A Pomegranate, in which I did what the title says.  

Let me tell you a secret: I'm pretty hazy on the whole Jesus story.  And all those stories that surround him.  You know, like, the Bible.  Part of the reason I'm stoked about this whole Advent thing is so I can do me some learning.

Advent Adventures

Day 5 : Our wee book told us a little bit about Joseph and he seemed like a pretty self-sacrificing kind of guy, so today's activity was to not only EAT delicious M&Ms, but to give them away.  

Supposedly, 2 out of 3 girls were still sick, but I guess you can never be too sick for M&Ms.  They were still moving slowly, so we happened upon some VeggieTales movie on ye olde Netflix that was called "St. Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving".  I awarded myself 1 million points for the coincidental media tie-in and educational goodness.

When we got to the actual giving business, the girls were at first confused [read: horrified] by the idea, but once we started brainstorming people to give them to, they came around.  

Note: "Mom" and "Dad" were never on the list.

😦 

We taped them to:

• the stack of sidewalk salt at the hardware store (did I mention it's -7° here?)
• a basket at Target
• a candy dispenser at the mall
• a merry-go-round at the mall
• the driver's side door of a car
• a dressing room at the department store
• the ATM

Good times.  

What's your favorite gift to give?  Do you have a go-to winner present that people always love to receive?  I mean, you can't go wrong with chocolate, right?

One year ago: The Get Smart Book Club – Anna Karenina, in which OMG IT'S BEEN A YEAR.

Same bat time, same bat channel?

NO!

By God, it's Christmas time (see what I did there?) and sorry to get all Christian on your asses, but I'm going to share my Advent adventures with you.

In 2012, with the ladies being able to sort of kind of sometimes understand what Christmas is about, we found this advent calendar, but I wanted to do something MORE.  More meaningful, more memorable, more work, more complicated, more fun.  Right around December 27th of last year, I saw this and bought this and …

On the bright side, I was ahead of the game for this year.  Here's what I came up…

Advent Adventures

Activity/treat bag for each day (minus days 1 and 2) : 

Day 1: Hindered by our cross-country drive home from an East Coast wedding, I thought small.  Unleash the Christmas carols!

Day 2: Driving, still, I had planned ahead and used some of our precious cargo space to pack our collection of Christmas books.  Adorable holiday themed book-a-thon commence!

Day 3 : Our first day back at home in two weeks, we celebrated with holiday gel clings, or window cookies, as Mae Cake calls them.  

Day 4 : A coincidental precipation and V and Mae Cake being sick made "snow dough" a fortunate indoor, low-key plan.  That addicting, tactile-sensation combination of cornstarch and shaving cream was good for at least an hour of play.

I was immediately wary of its huge mess factor since the cornstarch basically exploded when I opened the package.  The combo starts out as a sticky, overwhelming glop, but after kneading the ingredients together for a minute or so, it becomes a manageable, weird sandy, foamish, dough-like something.  

sick children agree : it's weirdly fun

zoo was awful dainty about it at first, but dug in with gusto after a few minutes

V built "sea castles"

as you can see by the terrible white balance, the lights are now on and they're still playing strong

Note : Zoo is in a stage where she can dress herself entirely, but puts every item of clothing on backwards.  I cannot help but sing "Kris Kross'll make ya… daddy mac'll make ya…" every time I see her.

What do you do for the holidays?  How do you spell the Jewish holiday that's going on right now?  Are you cooking, baking, hosting, and shopping like mad or eschewing the hustle and bustle and hiding in a corner?

One year ago: Garbage Challenge – Winning, in which I make a lot of bad jokes.